Tagged holiday

Nelson Mandela famously said, “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” As Billy (Adam Pally, “The Little Hours”) returns to his hometown for Thanksgiving, in the new comedy Most Likely to Murder, he is confronted with the myriad ways the place…

Why Him? The real question is why me? Why am I always searching for the seemingly most elusive item on Earth, not a holy grail or world peace, but a decently funny comedy that can a) make me laugh consistently and, b) not devolve into a juvenile series of f-words, toilet humor and disgusting situations….

I suppose the title, “The Christmas Pageant That Almost Never Was” would have worked, but Believe is fine. After all, it’s the holiday season, so we’re entitled to a little suspension of (dis)belief, as the newest faith-heavy film from writer/director Billy Dickson in his major debut, conveys. Drawing allusions to Frank Capra’s 1946 classic, “It’s…

Evidently filmmaker Garry Marshall cannot seem to get away from his tediously formulaic playbook of themed movie-making and certainly the tepid and toothless Mother’s Day reinforces this cinematic sentiment. Marshall is determined to exploit these cornball conveyor belt holiday-based movies that shamelessly boast an all-star cast, shallow sentimentality, heavy-handed and forced nuttiness and the gimmickry of…

Every Christmas season, two categories of people emerge from their Thanksgiving comas: Those who identify with Buddy the elf and those who identify with the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge. Some start listening to Christmas music before Halloween; some “Bah, humbug!” their way through shopping malls and tree lots. Yet, there’s also the forgotten few who…

What would the Christmas season be without another movie where a dysfunctional family comes together in a star-studded ensemble production to sort out their personal problems and realize that their past histories and neurosis cannot keep them down? That despite what hatred and apathy they may feel for one another, in realty, like almost ALL…

If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear Garry Marshall was trying to break the unofficial record he set in “Valentine’s Day” by jamming even more A and B-list actors into his new romantic comedy New Year’s Eve. The ultimate result is they are all a part of your basic multi-threaded movie that intertwines the…